Nestor Cortes suddenly found himself under fire for decade-old tweets containing offensive language, and Tiki Barber doesn’t understand some of the widespread response criticizing the sudden star for words he used when he was a high schooler.
“For some people to feel like they want to cancel him for what he did, it’s not illegal and was however many years ago, a decade ago when he was a kid and immature, it makes no sense to fully come down hard on him,” Tiki said during Tuesday’s show.
“We gotta check ourselves about what we’re getting our ire up about as it pertains to our athletes who suddenly become famous. There are tons of kids who said and put out worse than this. But once you become famous, all of that comes to the forefront.”
Still, the response and the criticism was there, and after Cortes said he was “pissed off” at himself for those old tweets, mainly rap lyrics, Tiki says the pressure is on for the lefty to put the controversy behind him the next time he takes the mound.
“His next start better be one of his best starts that he’s had,” Tiki said. “In sports, we’ve seen this often…the best way to move forward from this is to replace it with a positive story.
“His next start might be one of the most pressure-filled that he has. Because of this, his next start is gonna have to be his most important one. In the long term, it doesn’t feel that way, but in the short term, the way to get rid of bad news is to replace it with something good.”
That next start will come on Friday in the Bronx against the White Sox, so we will see how he handles his first start since those old tweets resurfaced, but Tiki says the lefty already took a strong step in how he handled his first comments after those tweets were dug up.
“I feel for Nestor Cortes, but I’m proud of him for how he addressed it,” Tiki said. “Some guys want to run from it, and you can’t.”
Follow WFAN's midday team on Twitter: @TikiandTierney, @TikiBarber, @BrandonTierney, and @TheHoffWFAN
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